NCERT MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION CLASS – 12 | POLITICAL SCIENCE PART-B POLITICS IN INDIA NCERT MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION | CHAPTER- 10 | CHALLENGES IN NATION BUILDING | EDUGROWN |

In This Post we are  providing  CHAPTER 10 CHALLENGES IN NATION BUILDINGNCERT MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS for Class 12 POLITICAL SCIENCE PART-B POLITICS IN INDIA SINCE INDEPENDENCE which will be beneficial for students. These solutions are updated according to 2021-22 syllabus. These MCQS  can be really helpful in the preparation of Board exams and will provide you with a brief knowledge of the chapter.

NCERT MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS ON CHALLENGES IN NATION BUILDING

Question 1.
Describe how the princely states of Manipur and Junagadh acceded to India.
Answer:
Accession of Manipur After the independence in 1947, MAllaraja of Manipur Bodhachandra Singh, signed the Instrument of Accession with Indian Union on the assurance that the internal autonomy of Manipur would be maintained. Under the pressure of people of Manipur, MAllaraja held the election in June, 1948 and state became a constitutional monarchy.

Thus, Manipur was the first state to hold an election on the basis of adult franchise. The legislators of the regional parties of Manipur did not want to merge with India but state Congress wanted to.

Government of India pressurised the Manipur MAllaraja and succeeded to do so. MAllaraja accepted the agreement and signed it without consulting the Legislative Assembly. This led to lot of anger and resentment in Manipur, the repercussions of which are still being felt.

Accession of Junagadh In case of Junagadh, the Nawab of Junagadh wanted to merge with Pakistan or wanted to remain independent. The people of Junagadh wanted to merge with Indian Union. This lead to several events and also a plebiscits which resulted in the integration of Junagadh into India.

The successful negotiations brought many states to sign Instrument of Accession which means that states wanted to accept the sovereignty of India.

Question 2.
Analyse any six consequences of the partition of India in 1947.
Answer:
Muslim League advanced ‘Two-Nation Theory’ which advocated India consisted of not one but two ‘people’, Hindus and Muslims. That is why Muslim League demanded Pakistan, a separate country for the Muslims. The two main causes of partition in 1947 were as follows :

• Political competition between the Congress and the Muslim League.
• The role of Britishers in dividing the Hindus and Muslims by their policy of ‘divide and rule’.

The consequences of partition of India in 1947 are as follows:
1. Division of provinces according to majority The implementation of partition was very difficult because there was no single belt of Muslims majority in British India. The concentration of Muslims were in Punjab which was in the West and Bengal which was in East. The problems lied in these areas as concentration of non-Muslims were more. Therefore, it was decided that these two provinces would be bifurcated according to the majority at the district or even lower level.

2. Exploitation of minorities Further there were problems with the minorities on both side of the borders, they were easily targeted and there was no option except to leave their own land and homes and go across the border.

This transfer is said to be most abrupt, largest and unplanned transfer known in the human history. There were killings and atrocities on both sides of border in the name of religion. The minorities on both sides fled from their homes and often secured temporary shelter in refugee camps. Even they were not safe in refugee camps so, they travelled to the other side by all means railways, roads and by foot.

3. Exploitation of women During this journey, women were oftf n attacked and killed. Women were abdi cted and raped and also forcefully conve :ted to other religion. Therefore, family members killed their girls and women. 80 lakh people migrated across the new border and between 5 to 10 lakh people were killed during partition. Thus, partition of India established the deep trauma within minds of the citizens.

4. Problem with refugee Those who did manage to cross the border found that they had no home. For lakhs of these ‘refugees’ the country’s freedom meant life in ‘refugees camps’, for months and sometimes for years.

5. Administrative failure There were competing political interests behind communal conflicts. The Muslim league was formed to protect the interests of the Muslims in colonial India. It was in the forefront of the demand for a separate Muslim nation. Similarly there were organisations, which were trying to organise the Hindus in order to turn India into a Hindu nation. This situation led to administrative failure in the country.

6. Distribution of financial assets The financial assets and things like tables, chairs, typewriters, paper-clips, books and also musical instruments of the police band were divided. The employees of the government and the railways were also ‘divided’. It was a violent separation of communities who had hitherto to lived together as neighbours.

Question 3.
“The accommodation of regional demands and the formation of linguistic states were also seen as more democratic.” Justify the statement with any three suitable arguments.
Answer:
This statement can be justified by following three arguments:

1. Regional aspirations are very much a part of democratic politics. Expression of regional issues is not an aberration or an abnormal phenomenon. A large and diverse democracy like India must deal with regional aspirations on a regular basis.
2. The best way to respond to regional aspirations is through democratic negotiations rather than through suppression.
3. Regional imbalance in economic development contributes to the feeling of regional discrimination. Regional imbalance is a fact of India’s development experience.

Question 4.
How did the reorganisation of states take place in India after its independence? Explain.
Answer:
State Reorganisation Commission The formation of Andhra Pradesh spurred the struggle for making of other states on linguistic basis in other parts of the country. These struggle forced the Central Government into appointing a States Reorganisation Commission in 1953 to look into

Recommendations of State Reorganisation Commission were :

1. To look into the question of redrawing of the boundaries of states.
2. This commission in its report accepted that the boundaries of the state should reflect the boundaries different languages. On the basis of its report the States Reorganisation Act was passed in 1956.

Process and the basis of Reorganisation of States of Indian Union After partition the challenge was to draw the internal boundaries of the Indian states. The boundaries had to be drawn in a way so that the linguistic and cultural plurality of the country could be reflected without affecting the unity of the nation. Indian National Congress and many leaders recognised the linguistic principle as reorganisation of new states’ boundaries.

But our leader further felt that carving out states on the basis of language might lead to disruption and disintegration and would draw attention away from other social and economic challenges that the country faced.

Thus, protests began in the Telugu speaking areas of the old Madras province. The Vishalandhra Movement (the movement for a separate Andhra) demanded that the Telugu speaking areas should be separated from the Madras province and be made into a separate Andhra province.

The movement gathered momentum. Potti Sriramulu, a Congress leader and a Veteran Gandhian, went on an indefinite fast that led to his death after 56 days. This caused great unrest and resulted in violent outbursts in Andhra region. Finally, the Prime Minister announced the formation of a separate Andhra State in December 1952.

New States formed after 1956 were :

1. This commission led to the creation of 14 states and six union territories. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are the new states formed after 1956.
2. Uttarakhand from Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh from Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand from Bihar all of these created in 2000.
3. In 2014, another state is created after bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, namely Telangana. As a result Gujarat was formed out by Bombay. Haryana was from Punjab, Himachal Pradesh was formed out from Punjab. Tripura, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh were created from AssAnswer:

Question 5.
Explain any three challenges faced by India at the time of its independence.
OR
Explain any three challenges that India faced at the time of her independence.
Answer:
The major challenges faced by India at the time of its independence are as follows:

1. To shape a United Nation Immediately after independence, there was a challenge to make India an unified nation. There were diversities of cultures, languages, religions etc increased the questions on India’s future.

2. To establish democracy However, India is seventh largest country in the world and has different values, cultures norms etc. According to the Constitution, India has adopted the democratic government on the basis of adult franchise. The challenge was how to maintain democracy.

3. To ensure the development and well-being The Constitution laid down in Fundamental Rights that all citizens are equal and all of them are free to practise their own religion. In DPSP laid down welfare state. Although the Preamble of the Constitution laid down that the Principles of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity were adopted to develop the society. However, the challenges were how to overcome the poverty and how to develop economy of India through the peoples’ participation.

4. Integration of princely states After independence, there were 565 Princely States. The Independence Act, 1947 says that British India divided into two nations India and Pakistan. And Princely States may be merged with both the countries or stayed independent. The British left India with multiple problems. This was certain and very serious challenge raised in front of India.

Question 6.
What were the major challenges of building democracy in India?
Answer:
There were three major challenges of building democracy in India. These were as follows :
1. Communalism Indian polity is secular in nature, but communalism is thriving in the country and now it constitutes a serious problem of Indian states. India respects all religions and the major religious communities are Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, Christians and Anglo-Indians The Muslims constitute the largest minority community. The Hindus constitute more than 80 per cent of population of the country. Most of Hindu leaders believed that India does not have diverse communities.

2. Caste This is the biggest threat to India as political parties candidates are of the same caste as that of the majority voters, who favour him on caste basis although politics has moved towards casteism. It has brought a balance in caste equation, because not only the advanced castes but other castes also are eligible for participation in a representative democracy. The association of politics with caste has led democracy to a greater rationality vis-a-vis the caste system. The political parties while selecting the candidates, see whether the candidate will be able to get the support of voters of his caste or not.

3. Multi-party system After independence, many regional parties have formed, whether on religious basis or caste basis or any other basis. These multi-party systems further lead to coalition government this is also big threat to Indian democracy.

Question 7.
Discuss the problem related to Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
Answer:
The Congress party has evolved its politics on Kashmir on the basis of major global and domestic developments.

Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru repeated his commitment to find the will of the people of Kashmir in the Constituent Assembly of India. The problems of Kashmir between Indian and Pakistan are :
1. Accession to India India was satisfied that the most important political leader and party of Kashmir had accepted accession to India. The leader like Sheikh AbdullAll of National Conference represented the democratic will of the people of Kashmir and they were unambiguously acceeded to India. The Congress party also assured internal autonomy to the people of Jammu and Kashmir through the Constitution of India.

2. Article 370 and political consensus The Article 370 of Constitution can be altered in favour of the centre. Many other parties have supported this article, but Bharatiya Jan Sangh (now BJP) rejected every premise and every policy of the Congress and wanted to omit Article 370. Two extremely polarised position on Kashmir are represented by Congress and the BJP and it is impossible to evolve any minimal national consensus on Kashmir in India.

3. Emergence of terrorism Further the emergence of terrorism in the valley has accentuated polarisation among political parties in India because Pakistan is directly involved in terrorist activities.

4. Inter-regional dispute Another dimensions that Kashmir valley, Jammu and Ladakh have involved is, inter-regional disputes and competition. Ladakh’s political parties say that Kashmir discriminated them. But after the entry of centre all the movements were discontinued. If Jammu and Kashmir valley are separated from each other, then another two-nation theory could be faced by Indian Union. That’s why the political parties have to maintain legitimacy and democracy with all.

Question 8.
What were the main consideration for bringing princely states with Indian Union? Who played the historic role in this task?
Answer:
The British paramountacy was over on the princely States after independence and these states may go with India or Pakistan or stay independent. There were 565 princely states.

Problem started because of following reasons:

1. The decision was totally upto the ruler not on the people this was a serious problem and big threat on the existence of a united India.
2. After Independence ruler of Travancore declared himself ‘ independent after a few days Hyderabad made same declaration.
3. Nawab of Bhopal was averse to join Constituent Assembly. This kind of differences might futher divide India into small states or countries.

Government Approaches Government took forward step and negotiated with the Princely State ruler and saw that the people of these states wanted to become a part of the Indian Union. Then government adopted flexible diplomacy and gave autonomy to some states. India held plebiscite and acceded the Princely States into Indian Union and operations which government operationalised accessed the Princely States, e.g., in Junagadh Government held plebiscite, operation Vijay in Goa and operation Polo in Hyderabad. Therefore, after all these efforts integrated Princely States.

Sardar Patel who was the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister that time, played an important role in negotiating with Princely States rulers and brought them into the Indian Union.

Question 9.
Read the paragraph given below carefully and answer the following questions.

We have a Muslim minority who are so large in numbers that they cannot, even if they want, go anywhere else. That is a basic fact about which there can be no argument. Whatever the provocation from Pakistan and whatever the indignities and horrors inflicted on non-Muslims there, we have got to deal with this minority in a civilised manner. We must give them security and the rights of citizens in a democratic state. If we fail to do so, we shall have a festering sore which will eventually poison the whole body politic and probably destroy it. Jawaharlal Nehru, Letter to Chief Minister, 15th October, 1947 :
(i) In spite of indignities and horrors inflicted on Non-Muslims by Pakistan, why Jawaharlal Nehru wanted to deal with the Muslim minority in a civilised way?
(ii) Why this minority should be given the security and rights on the same footing as to all others in a democratic system?
(iii) If this minority was not provided security and rights what kind of scenario is envisaged?
Answer:
(i) At the time of partition Pakistan inflicted horrors on non-Muslims. Despite this fact Nehru wanted to deal with the Muslim minority in a civilised way because out of the then minority communities in India Muslims were large in numbers. They had no option to go anywhere.
(ii) India is a democratic and secular country, where all religions are treated equally. Because of this factor the Muslim minority should be given security and rights on the same footings in India.
(iii) If this minority was not provided security and rights it will poison the whole Indian political system and the Indian democratic set-up would come to an end.

Question 10.
Sardar Patel in a letter to princely rulers in 1947 said, “I hope the Indian states shall realise fully that if we do not cooperate and work together in general interest, anarchy and chaos will overwhelm us all, great and small, and lead us to total ruin.”
Answer the following questions
(i) What general interest has been referred to?
(ii) What situation would lead to total ruin?
Answer:
(i) The general interest referred to raise the country to new greatness. Lack of unity will expose India to unexpected calamities.
(ii) Sardar Patel said that Indian states should realise fully that if they do not cooperate and work together in general interest, anarchy and chaos will lead the nation to total ruin.